Edmontonians react to Alberta ditching Daylight Saving Time
Posted October 7, 2026 5:04 pm.
When Alberta ditches Daylight Saving Time, the province will be out of sync with its southern neighbour Montana, which will now be one hour behind.
“It’s going to be a little funny, I think for some time zones. Me and my friends were thinking about it,” said Edmonton’s Jasmina Pastuovic.
“It’s fine. I’m not planning on going to Montana anytime soon so it’s not really going to affect me,” said Jed Gauthier.
“Yeah, it looks like it’s going to be a very chaotic party,” added Danielle. “It doesn’t matter much to me. I’m a night bird myself so I’m looking forward to the later sunlight.”
“Everything will turn out just fine,” added Robert McLean. “Doesn’t matter if it’s an hour early or two hours late.”
But it does matter for people who wake up in the morning going to school and work.
“It’s going to keep getting worse for those people who found that last week of October, ‘wow, it’s really hard to wake up on time to get to school, get to work,” said Michael Antle, a psychology professor at the University of Calgary.
Antle says our body follows the sunrise and sunset, and waking up early and not seeing the sun could affect focus, behaviour and mental health.
“When you’re alert, when you can think, when you can concentrate, it follows the sun and for us the sun’s rising an hour later so that 8 a.m. course for our students is going to feel like a 7 a.m. course. Our 8 a.m. courses have never had great attendance, when it feels like 7 a.m. it’s going to be even worse, I think,” Antle explained.
Rishi Acharya, a first year U of A student, said, “I don’t have much of a choice, I have to do it. You just have to do it. You know like you have to go to work no matter what time, if the sun’s up or not right.”
One trick psychologists suggest is to expose yourself to bright light first thing in the morning to trick your brain into thinking it’s sunrise.
